I think that the reason that many Americans like JC is because he's very American. My conservative/republican family members like him very much, and when has there ever been a sucessful comedy on TV or in print that hasn't made fun of us? We love self-depricating humor, we eat it up as evidenced by shows like South Park, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, The Daily Show, Politically Incorrect, The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Late Night etc. You can't open up a newspaper, magazine, or turn on the TV without seeing a joke, satire or sideways comment on some aspect of American life, it's just what we do.
I'm sure some diehard nationalistic redneck would be offended, but those aren't the people reading the magazine anyway. You don't need to sanitize things for everyone, you just need to please your target audience and I don't think there will every be a big enough backlash from a JC joke to make them unprintable here.
JC has a very American personality, and nobody I have ever shown his writing(the times and TG) to has ever been offended, often they think he's hilarious.
That's what I mean about the Discovery Channel Top Gear mistake. All the humor was sucked out of it, and when people saw the show it was pretty bland to them. Then when I show them an ep of the real Top Gear they're hooked.
We can take a joke or two, no need to go walking around on eggshells. Most of us are pissed off about the same stupid things that the British make fun of anyway.